


I Still See Your Ghost

by tehhumi



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Compliant, Ghosts, M/M, Slow Burn, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, bucky is a ghost, the serum lets you see ghosts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 14:45:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9128383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tehhumi/pseuds/tehhumi
Summary: Things had been going well for Bucky.  He hadn't been dragged to Hell in a while, and no one walked through him in over a month. Then his best friend showed up back from the dead and made everything confusing.





	

Things had been going pretty well for Bucky lately. It had been close to a year since he was last dragged back to Hell, and no one walked through him in over a month. The Davis’s new baby was sleeping through the night, so Bucky didn’t have to worry about missing any interesting developments with them if he went downtown at night. And now it looked like something interesting was about to happen, based off the strange car that was turning onto the street. This car didn’t belong to anyone in the building; it was black, bulky, and practically fresh off the factory floor. The tinted windows almost fit in, but the guys with tinted windows in this neighborhood tended to drive flashier cars. Maybe it was Lucy Davis’s boyfriend, he was filthy rich – as well as a bad fit for Lucy, and aware enough of it to avoid her parents. This promised an entertaining fight.

  
Bucky stretched and got up from where he was seated in an alley. He didn’t actually feel sore, but it helped him feel more normal to stretch when he’d been motionless for long periods of time. The car had pulled up in front of his apartment building (his building – that was worth a chuckle, it hadn’t been his in sixty-nine years, and even then only one apartment), and even though this was New York, very few visitors came to this street. Once the door opened, Bucky walked over to see who was getting out.

  
Whoa. That guy looked uncannily like Steve. Bucky felt like he’d seen a ghost, only without finally having some company. Still, that was as good a topic of ‘conversation’ as any. “You know, Blondie, you look almost exactly like a guy I used to know. Same blond hair, same blue eyes, same strong jaw. He lived right in this building – course he was a bit smaller then.”

The guy turned to look in Bucky’s direction, must have been a cat fighting or a door slamming somewhere behind him. Although people tend not to remain startled for more than a moment or two after they see a cat, and this guy is standing stock still and his face has gone pale.

“What? Bucky?” Blondie said.

“Oh, of course you know all about him, he’s world famous now. Keep forgetting that. Probably that’s why you came here, to see where he was from. Nice of you to remember me though, most people just go on and on about Captain America.”

“Bucky, it’s me, it’s Steve!”

Bucky narrowed his eyes. “Blondie, the way you’re acting, I’d swear you could hear me.”

“Of course I can hear you, Bucky! You’re standing right there!”

“You actually can?”

“Yes, of course!”

“Wow. Is that really you Stevie?”

There were tears in Steve’s eyes. “Yeah, Buck. It’s really me.”

“What took you so long? I’ve been waiting her for ages, was starting to think you weren’t coming.”

“Buck – I thought you were dead. I went after HYDRA – there was a plane, it was the only way – I swear I was going to look for you – if I had thought there was any chance of you surviving –”

“No need to beat yourself up over it, I didn’t survive. Everyone knows about the plane, but why didn’t you show up here? You been on a grand tour of the world for the past seventy years, or what?”

“I was frozen in the ice, the doctors said it’s kind of like hibernation – wait, what do you mean you didn’t survive? I’m talking to you, aren’t I?”

“You are, and you’re the first person in seven decades who has. I’m a ghost Steve; it’s apparently what happens when you die. Better get used to it; we’re stuck like this forever, near as I can tell. I just can’t figure why you didn’t know this before, did you just now show up here after that plane crash?”

“But I’m not dead. The doctors say it’s amazing, some property of the serum.” Then Steve continued, in a much smaller voice, “I’d know if I were dead, right?”  
Bucky never could stand to see Steve sad. “If other people can see you, and hear you, and you can’t go through walls, then you aren’t dead – that’s how I can tell when I am. If the doctors actually talked to you, you’re probably set.”

That got a weak smile out of Steve. “Does knocking down a wall to go through it count?”

“Nope, you are certifiably alive. So, want to go back to what you were saying about hibernating? It might make more sense with a few details. Or you could tell me what walls you’ve knocked down lately.”

 

 

Agent Hernandez was beginning to notice something wrong. He had thought that the Captain was just lost in a memory, or trying to say a goodbye he never had the chance to. Now it was becoming swiftly clear that Captain Rogers honestly believed someone was there. Still, it was best to check just how out of it Rogers was before calling for back up. “Captain Rogers? Who are you talking to?”

Steve turned his head. “It’s Bucky! Thank you so much for bringing me to him, although it’s a hell of a thing to spring on a fella.”

This was bad. “Captain, there’s no one else here. The only other person on the block is a woman leaving the Laundromat five doors down.”

Steve was confused: “What are you talking about? He’s right there!”

Agent Hernandez followed the line of Steve’s finger. “All that’s there is an empty alley, unless you’ve been talking to the dumpster.” He turned and spoke quietly to the woman waiting in the car. “Agent Campbell, please send a request for back up. Captain Rogers is experiencing visual and possibly auditory hallucinations.”

Steve retorted, “I am NOT hallucinating! I’ll bring him over to you, if you can’t see someone ten feet away.” He walked over to Bucky, but when he tried to grab Bucky’s arm, his fingers went right through. “Bucky? What’s happening? Why can’t he see you?”

Bucky replied, “I said you were the first person who’s talked to me in seventy years. No one can see me or hear me, and things go right through me. I’m a ghost; that’s how it works.”

“But why can I see you? I don’t understand.”

“I don’t know, it’s never happened before. But I’m glad you can, I missed you.”

“I’m glad too, Buck. I missed you.”

“You can’t have missed me that bad, you haven’t had the time. You crashed that plane the day after I died, and that hibernation thing you mentioned, when did you get out of that?”

“The day before yesterday. God, Buck, everything is so confusing, nothing makes sense anymore, how do you stand it all?”

“Well for one thing, the change for me has been a lot more gradual. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll pick it up.”

“I didn’t even think about how you’ve been here all this time! If I’d known, I would have at least found some way to get a message to you, so you wouldn’t have to find out about my d –” Steve paused for a moment, then gathered himself, “–the plane crash from the papers.”

Bucky decided to skip the fact that he’d actually been told of Steve’s death by one of the demons torturing him, and that he had actually spent his first two years dead in Hell. It wouldn’t help Steve to know right now. “It’s not so bad, it’s not like I’ve been stuck in one place. I go all around the city, even been to Boston a few times.”

“Seriously? You have all the time in the world and the furthest you’ve been is Boston?”

Bucky smiles, the teasing familiar. “I thought about going around the country on the route you took as a chorus girl, but seemed kind of silly. Half the fun of that would be mocking you about it.”

“Well, maybe we can get a chance to do that now. It’s not like I’ve got anything else on my schedule.”

 

Agent Hernandez approached Captain Rogers slowly, trying not to spook him. The block was surrounded, and agents were scrambling to block off the side streets. They would almost certainly catch Rogers if he tried to run again – but only almost, this was Rogers’s home turf. He knew all the alleys back in the day, and judging by the architecture, they might still be the same. In addition, Director Fury had emphasized that Captain Rogers was to be treated as an agent on medical leave, not a prisoner. Agent Hernandez spoke as steadily as possible, “Captain Rogers? It’s time to go back to SHIELD now; the director will worry if we go too long without checking in.”

Steve snorted. “Even in my day we had radio, and you were able to tell someone at base that I was going crazy just fine.”

Bucky’s heart fell to see Steve go, but the living belong with the living after all. “It’s fine, you should go with them, they’ve got all your medical records, and I’d hate for you to get in trouble for deserting. I’ll spend most of my time round here, you can find me if you need to.”

“I just got you back Buck, and you’re pretty much the only thing in this screwed up world I recognize. Do I really have to leave you?”

“How about this, then: you go back, and I tag along. I can hold onto the car, no one will notice. You can drop me off at your quarters, and I’ll wait there for you while you meet with your CO.”

“You promise you won’t disappear as soon as I stop looking?”

“Promise.”

“Alright.” Steve turned towards the SHIELD agents, took a deep breath, and repeated himself louder. “Alright. I’ll head back to base, we can check in with Director Fury.”

Agent Hernandez breathed a sigh of relief and spoke into his comm. “This is Agent Hernandez. Captain Rogers, Agent Campbell and I are returning to base. No difficulties anticipated, backup unnecessary.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting this to get my butt in gear about editing it. I currently have 21k of notes and fic sitting on my computer, and a few more scenes left to write. I'll try to update every week or so.


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